by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

Virginia Commonwealth University is making an aggressive push to keep men's basketball coach Shaka Smart, and the school hopes to reach an agreement to restructure Smart's contract by the end of the week, a person with direct knowledge of the contract negotiations told USA TODAY Sports Tuesday evening.

The person spoke under the condition of anonymity because the deal wasn't finalized.

Talks have centered on what Smart and VCU believe will move the program forward, as opposed to Smart's compensation, the person said, which includes recruiting and travel arrangements.

VCU and Smart did not dive into contract discussions until the season ended, which it did Saturday in a NCAA tournament round-of-32 loss to Michigan, but the school had planned on addressing concerns immediately following the season to avoid the hoopla surrounding open jobs and the coaching carousel.

Smart, 35, has been one of college basketball's rising stars ever since VCU's Final Four run in 2011. He had had many suitors over the past two years, and this spring has been no exception. After UCLA fired Ben Howland and Minnesota fired Tubby Smith, fans of both programs began buzzing about luring Smart away from VCU. The person who spoke to USA TODAY Sports confirmed that both of those schools have reached out to Smart.

But getting Smart out of Richmond is â?? and has been â?? no easy task.

After the Rams' magical run, VCU kept Smart by signing him to an eight-year contract extension and increasing his guaranteed money from about $420,000 to about $1.2 million. He also got more money in his recruiting and travel budgets, then-athletic director Norwood Teague said.

In recent years, Smart has chosen to stay in Richmond amid openings at North Carolina State and Illinois, among others.

On the subject of passing up jobs in bigger conferences, Smart said in November that he was happy in Richmond, and his wife, Maya, and their daughter were, too.

"You're coming to work every day to hopefully enjoy what you do. Learn, be better and be challenged," Smart said. "I have that opportunity here. There were some great opportunities that were out there, but this was really less about those opportunities and more about my desire to be here.

"The media can sometimes oversimplify these types of things and say that if someone leaves, they're all of the sudden greedy or selfish or they're in it for themselves or the money. If they stay, they're a great person or whatever. Just like me, you or anyone in a job, they're going to do what's best for them and their family. Be somewhere where their family is happy and where you're valued or appreciated. It just so happens that for me, I feel that way about VCU."

VCU made the jump from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Atlantic 10 last summer. Like most conferences, the A-10 is currently in the midst of transition; it lost Butler and Xavier to the new Big East and just recently announced it is adding George Mason.

The news of VCU working to restructure Smart's contract was first reported by SI.com earlier Tuesday. Smart just finished his fourth season with the Rams.